Category: Howtos

Are you looking for some ways on how you could change your NAT Type from Strict to Open NAT, on your PS4 or Xbox ? If so, then jump right in and read this tutorial on how you would exactly do that.

Jump Links:

• Procedures
• Types of NAT
• Port Numbers
• What is UPnP and how to enable it
• Port Forwarding with DD-WRT Router
• Static DHCP Lease for DD-WRT Router
• Port Forwarding with Aztech DSL5001EN
• Static DHCP Lease with Aztech DSL5001EN

I am writing this guide in response to a request posted on my YouTube channel comments and Disqus comments.

One my readers asked me this:

Hello Mr.Chubbable – I need help to connect my PS4 with the Aztech 5018EN to get a NAT type 2 or 1. It is currently getting NAT type 3 which is a restricted and giving me a hard time playing online. Can you help on this? Thanks in advance

…and from my YouTube channel, someone posted a comment:

Pls post a video on how to change nat type.

When I first read those comments, I scratched my head and asked myself… Duh what? What the heck is NAT Type?

Honestly, at that time I don’t know what NAT Type is, though I know what NAT in Computer Networking is. So I did a quick research on Wikipedia, but got disappointed because no page exist yet that contains the term.

So I wonder why the term does not exist yet on Wikipedia or why it is not yet written about, probably it’s not really a technical term for Networking. Need to research on this topic later, in the mean time I’ll tell you about what you actually need to ask for.

So I did some more digging and found out that the term NAT Type is very well-known in the console gaming world. So if you’re a hardcore console gamer (Xbox or PlayStation) but sorta noob on networking, then you’d better read this post to understand what you’re asking about and what you should be looking for.

Okay, it’s like this…

PlayStation and Xbox categorize your Network Connection state to various types, they called it NAT types. I haven’t seen a console GUI ever before (not shy about that), but the NAT Types they’re mentioning about can be found on the console’s networking settings, then Test Connection or any term or label that says the same.

I don’t have Consoles, but I play games on PC and I forward a lot of different ports on my router to optimize my online gaming experience.

Now, depending on how your router or modem is configured, your console will show what NAT Types you’re currently at.

Xbox and PlayStation categorize NAT Types like so:

• Type 1 (Open NAT)
• Type 2 (Moderate NAT)
• Type 3 (Strict NAt)

To explain that further, read below.

What are NAT Types

Here’s how PlayStation and Xbox describes NAT Types.

• Type 1 NAT or Open NAT – With this type of NAT, the console is directly connected to the Internet.

  You connection enables you to chat with other players, join and host a multi-player or cooperative game with other players on the network. Overall, you will not have any issues with your connection.

  You could also use a router with this type of NAT and make it appear as though the console is directly connected to the Internet.

  To do that you could either:

  • Connected to your modem via bridged-mode or PPoE and Firewall is disabled. Only applicable with DSL Internet connections.

  • Enable DMZ in your router to direct inward traffic to your console’s IP address. This is not recommended for several security reasons.

    Now this NAT Type or routing setup is not secure since all your network ports are exposed to the Internet. Imagine what a would be hacker could do if your system is totally exposed to the Internet.

  • Firewall is disabled on your Modem/Router, setting all ports in open state.

    Basically, this NAT Type is what you should be getting for your gaming Console.

• Type 2 NAT or Moderate NAT – You have a Type 2 NAT if your console (Sony PS4 Console or Microsoft Xbox Console) is connected to a Router to access the Internet.

  Usually you use this kind of setup to share your Internet connection with other users or devices within your Local Area Network or Home Network.

  With this type of NAT you should be able to chat, play cooperative or multiplayer games with other user on the PS4 or Xbox network. However, you may also encounter some voice chat audio issues with other players. To fix the issue with this NAT type, read further below and learn how to solve this.

• Type 3 or Strict NAT – With this type, your system is connected to the Internet via a Router, and Firewall may be enabled or disabled on it.

  A strict NAT Type enables your Xbox to ONLY play cooperative or multiplayer games and chat with other users on the Xbox network, however, you could only chat and play with users who have an Open NAT Type or Type 1 NAT. You can’t be chosen to host a game match if you’re into this kind of NAT.

  In the case of Sony PS4 Console, communication with other PS4™ systems might have issues, or some of the System’s Network Features might not all work. However, you may be able to connect to the PSN (PlayStation Network) and perform downloads or updates.

You should know by now the different types of NAT on your PS4 or Xbox Consoles. Also, you probably know by now if what would be the best NAT Type to use with your Console.

…and that would be Type 1 or Open NAT.

Yes! That would be the best and optimal NAT Type to use with your Consoles, provided that we do the necessary security measures and other related task to make your console or system open to the Xbox or PS network.

Now that you know, I’ll teach you how you could change your Console’s NAT Type to Open or Moderate.

Continue reading.

Changing NAT Types

Before your read further, I need you to know that… when you ask about changing your NAT Type, you are actually asking how you do Port Forwarding or Packet Forwarding.

So if you want to learn how you would modify your NAT Type on your Xbox or PlayStation, you actually need to learn Port or Packet Forwarding.

You do this not on your Console, but on your Modem or Router. So when you say "Change NAT Type", you actually need to tinker with your Modem or Router and not with your Console’s configs.

So essentially, you should be asking… how to port forward to get an Open or Type 1 NAT.

But you don’t always have to do this just to have an Open NAT status.

Yeah that’s right! You don’t have to forward ports to your PS4 or Xbox, if your Router has UPnP feature.

You might ask again… How To Get an Open NAT Type on PS4 or Xbox without Port Forwarding?

Simple answer is, enable Universal Plug n Play (UPnP) on your Router if it has it.

What the heck is UPnP

UPnP or Universal Plug N Play feature on a Router let’s your device seamlessly connect to your network without any further configuration. It opens the necessary ports for you and closes it when no longer used.

So this would be very helpful feature especially when you have several Consoles within your LAN or Home Network, accessing the Internet all at the same time.

That being said, UPnP would not always work especially with crappy Router brands and hardwares. But Linux-based and BSD-based software Routers is best for serving UPnP functionalities. If you want to try one of these Software Routers, then learn how to install PFSense or try flashing your Router with DD-WRT, OpenWRT or Tomato.

How to enable UPnP? Enabling this on a DD-WRT Router, you need to go to NAT / QoS Tab. Then UPnP > Tick Enable radio box for UPnP Service, then tick Enable for Clear port forwards on startup, and finally click Save button.

Reboot the router by going to Administration tab, then Management and Reboot router on the bottom of the page.

That’s it!

Reference Image:

If all else fails, then port forwarding would be your best remedy to convert your NAT type into Open NAT Type.

You must take note however, that Port Forwarding only works with one device or single static IP.

Requirements

• Computer – You need this to configure your Router or Modem’s settings, and not your Console.
• Router or Router+Modem Combo
• Router/Modem Admin User Account
• DSL Modem in Bridged-Mode (N/A for Cable Modems or when not using a 3rd party Router.)
• Port Numbers Details for your Console
• Static IP Address set in your Console OR
• Static DHCP Lease
• Some of your Time

You need to know that these configs worked on my country (Philippines), using Globe Tattoo Broadband as my ISP, Aztech DSL5001EN as my Modem (with Router by disabled it), and Linksys WRT54G2 with DD-WRT Firmware as my Router.

So any port forwarding configs shown in this post shall be done using the above mentioned devices.

Before starting off with this guide, make sure that you already have a Modem set in bridged-mode, and that, it is fully working with your current home network setup.

Sony PS4 and Microsoft Xbox Port Details

Here are the necessary ports and protocols that needs forwarding to your Console.

Additional Info: For PlayStation, set Protocol for port range 3478-3480 and 6000-7000to BOTH. For Xbox, set Protocol for port 3074 to BOTH.

Procedures

Port forwarding is almost similar with all Routers on the market today. One difference is the term or label used on their router settings.

On some routers, Port Forward is labeled as Port Map.

You also need to know what protocols needs forwarding, which are, TCP and UDP. Also take note about Port Ranges, these are multiple ports that needs forwarding. Typically, you just need to fill up From field and To field of your Router’s port-forwarding page.

A dash - indicates a port range, like the ones listed above.

For this guide, I’m gonna be using my Linksys WRT54G2 Router, flashed with DD-WRT. Also used in this guide is my Aztech 5001EN CPE Modem issued by Globe Telecom Philippines.

You could use this guide with other Routers on the market, you just need to apply the basic idea of forwarding ports to a single node or IP address.

Note 1: Port forwarding is point-less when your ISP blocks several ports from their Firewall. And if your console is using DHCP assigned IP address or dynamic IP address. Also, you won’t be able to do some port forwarding if your ISP locks you out from your CPE (modem/router). This means that, you don’t have admin access to your Modem or Router. In addition to this, you also couldn’t even make any changes to your CPE. So in that case, you need to search for alternative ways on how you would access (w/ admin priviledge)your CPE.

Before you start with the guide, make sure you have the correct user account that has the administrative privileges for your Router. You won’t be able to modify setting on your Router if you don’t have this.

• Step 1 – Assigned a Static IP Address to your Console.

  There are two ways to assign a static IP address to your Xbox or PS4; 1.) Manually configure your network settings and assign a static IP address with the right subnet mask and gateway address.2.) Assign a Static DHCP Lease to your Console, you need to know your Console’s MAC address for this.

  For me, it’s more easier to use and implement the Static DHCP Lease. So that’s what we’re going to do with this step.

  With Static DHCP Lease, your Console should always have the same IP address, though you did not set it to have a static IP address on your console. IP address stays the same even after Console or Router reboot. You need to set this on your router and not on your Console.

  You need to take note of your Console’s hostname or device name and MAC Address if you’re going to set a Static DHCP Lease.

  To know your Xbox’s hostname, go to;

  Settings > System > Network Settings > Available Network

  then…

  Your-current-network > Configure Network > Additional Settings >

  Advance Settings > Hostname

  Enter your desired hostname or leave the one that’s in there. Take note of the name.

  To know your Xbox’s MAC address, go to;

  Settings > System > Network Settings > `Available Network

  then…

  Your-current-network > Configure Network > Additional Settings >

  Advance Settings > …and you should see your MAC address here.

  To know your Sony PS4 Console’s MAC address, using your XBM (Cross Media Bar) menu, go to;

  Settings > Network > View Connection Status >

  …then look for MAC Address.

  To know or change your PS4 hostname or name, go to;

  Settings > System Information > Name

  So once you got your Console’s hostname and MAC address, go ahead and login to your Router and set parameters there.

  To set Static DHCP Lease for DD-WRT Router, go to;

  Services > Services Management

  Scroll down a bit until you see the Static Leases block. Click on Add button to create a new set of fields for your entry. You need to fill up MAC Address, Host Name and IP Address.

  In my case, I filled up the fields like so;

  • MAC Address – 20:24:D1:21:D9:31
  • Host Name – xbox
  • IP Address – 192.168.1.101

  Reference Image:

  

  After doing this, reboot your Router then your Console.

  Check your network information or status and see if you’re getting the right IP address you set in the Router. If so, then continue with step 2.

• Step 2 – Set port forwarding rules.

  To forward ports to your Console, you should know the needed ports to forward. Consult with the Port Details posted above.

  This step is very straight forward, you just need to fill things. So here we go.

  From your DD-WRT router, go to NAT / QoS tab then Port Forwarding.

  Click Add button to add a new set of fields.

  You need to fill the following fields:

  • Application – ex. Xbox Port 01
  • Port from – start port number
  • Port to – end port number
  • Protocol – either UDP, TCP or Both, see port details above
  • IP Address – Your Console IP address
  • Enable – Ticked or Checked

  Reference Image:

  

• Step 3 – Forward the rest of the ports.

  Repeat step 2 above and forward the other needed ports for your Xbox or PS4.

  Note: A dash or hyphen (-) indicates a port range

• Step 4 – Save all changes and reboot your Router.

  Click on Save button then go to Administration tab, scroll down to bottom and click on Reboot Router.

  Reference Image:

  

• Step 5 – Check your NAT Status.

  If you get an Open NAT, then you did it! You’ve forwarded ports correctly.

NOTE 2: – There are some games that also needs port forwarding, so you need to know what ports are being used and create the necessary forwarding rules.

Aztech DSL5001EN Port Forward

If you have this Modem issued by Globe Broadband (a Philippine ISP), port forwarding with it is a bit different compared to my DD-WRT Router.

Below is a quick tutorial on how to port forward with Aztech DSL5001EN Modem+Router.

Procedure

First of, you need to know the Super Admin login info for your Modem. The known login details is given below.

User Name: admin User Pass: 3UJUh2VemEfUtesEchEC2d2e

• Step 1 – Login to your modem.

  Fire up your browser and go to 192.168.254.254.

  Login using the details mentioned above.

• Step 2 – Navigate to Advance Mode.

  Click on the Advance Mode Tab to access the advance configuration page.

  Reference Image:

  

• Step 3 – Navigate to Router Features.

  Click on Router Features button to access advance features and functions.

• Step 4 – Go to Port Forwarding page.

  Click on the Port Forwarding tab to access the configuration page.

• Step 5 – Fill up the necessary fields.

  On this page, you need to fill up the following fields:

  • Custom application name – Enter a unique name for each rule
  • Public Port Range – Port numbers for your console
  • Private Port Range – same with Public Port
  • Local IP Address – IP Address set on your Console
  • Protocol – TCP, UDP or Both

  In my case, I filled up Custom application name with incrementing numbers. Like xbox 01, xbox 02, xbox 03 and so on. You must have already set a static IP address on your Console.

  To fill the fields up, you need to click the edit button for Rule 0 and continue with the rest of the Rule numbers.

  Use the port numbers provided above for your Xbox or PS4.

  I made a video for you to see how you would forward ports exactly on your Aztech 5001EN Modem/Router. Wanna see how you would do it? Watch – [video_lightbox_youtube video_id=yXo2Gs_MxKU&rel=0;autoplay=1 width=768 height=432 anchor="watch this video"].

  When done with the rules, reboot your Modem by going to Admin > Reboot and click on the Reboot button.

  After that, check your Console’s network status. You should be getting an Open NAT.

Getting a Static DHCP Lease

If you want to get a static IP address for your Console, without configuring your Console’s network settings, this method will work best for you.

To set this on your Aztech 5001EN modem, you need to know your Console’s MAC address. I’ve already mentioned how you could do this.

Let’s get started with this whenever you’re ready.

• Step 1 – Login to your modem.
• Step 2 – Go to Advance mode.
• Step 3 – Click on LAN

• Step 4 – Then go to MAC/IP Address Reservation

  You only need to fill two things; IP Address and MAC Address.

  Just enter the IP address you want for your Console, take note that no other devices should be using that IP address.

  Next, enter your Console’s MAC address. Click ADD button and reboot your router.

  You should be now getting a static IP automatically even if your reboot your Router or Console.

  Reference Image:

  

It’s a Wrap!

It’s that simple and easy to modify your NAT Type. All it takes is to configure your Router. So I hope this post answered your question and you learned from it.

So, to those who asked how to change NAT type from Strict NAT to Open NAT on PS4 or Xbox… port forwarding is what you actually needs (or UPnP).

But if your Router supports it, you must try UPnP first before resorting to Port Forwarding. Because with UPnP, you don’t have to configure anything, you just need to enable it from your Router. Plus, you could use multiple Consoles within your network to access and use your single Internet connection.

If you need further help, ask me about it from the comment section. And if this guide worked for you, why should you not post even just a short comment saying… it worked!.

Lastly, if you still couldn’t get an Open NAT status after making all the port forwarding rules, consult your Game support page and ask for additional needed ports to forward.

Here’s an easy guide to block websites you don’t want your kids are visiting. You could set it on a schedule or device specific only rule. Yes! you could do this on a TP-LINK TL-WR720N Router, using it’s Parental Control feature to control the Internet activities of your kids. You could set a rule to whether your kids could access certain websites or restrict them from accessing any other websites except for one, at a specified time.

Before you start off with this guide, make sure that you already have working Internet connection and a local home network.

You also need to know the MAC address of each devices your kids are using, so you could set the rule for that specific device using it’s unique MAC Address.

You could do this setup either for a Desktop PC or Mobile devices.

Purpose of Blocking a Website

As a good parent to your kids, you shouldn’t allow and want them to see inappropriate things and contents on the internet, you know what I’m saying.

So you need to be one-step ahead of your kids and block all the possible websites and inappropriate contents for your kids.

Configuring your TP-Link router should allow you to set parental control feature and keep the settings in-effect even when you’re not at home to watch over your kids.

Requirements

• A working local home network
• A TP-LINK TL-WR720N Router or similar model
• A browser

Procedures

Here are the easy steps on how to block websites by enabling parental control feature of your TP-Link Router.

To set the feature, you need to set your own computer as the Parent PC, or else, you won’t be able to access the Internet if you enabled certain rules.

Parent PC should not be affected by any rules.

Step 1: Login To Your TL-WR720N Router

My Router is issued by Globe Broadband, an ISP in the Philippines. The company issued this to me with my WiMax subscription.

They supplied the following Default Admin and Password:

• User Name – admin
• Password – admin
• Login IP – 192.168.0.1

So fire up your favorite browser now and point it to 192.168.0.1 and login using the default username and password. If this details does not work for you, then ask Google to give it to you.

Step 2: Enable Parental Control Feature

Upon logging in, navigate to Parental Control page by clicking the button under — Advance Settings — menu, just below Security menu.

Now click Enable button for parental control, then enter your MAC Address for MAC Address of Parental PC field. Click save to continue.

[caption id="attachment_2200" align="aligncenter" width="659"] Block Website with this feature.[/caption]

Step 3: Create a rule for your kids

While still on the Parental Control page, click Add Newbutton just below the ID MAC address. A new page should open, you need to set parameters here.

These are the parameters you need to set values:

• MAC Address of Child PC
• Website Description
• Allowed Domain Name
• Status

You need to get the MAC Addresses of each devices your kids has.

To get MAC Address of Android Devices

Go to Settings > About Phone > Status > WiFi MAC Address

To get MAC Address of Windows PC

Go to Start Menu > RUN command > Type in CMD

Then a black screen should pop-up, that’s the command prompt. Now type in…

 ipconfig /all

Lots of text information will show up. Now look for your Network Card or Ethernet Adapter and look for the following details (sample Only).

Physical Address...................: A1-B2-C3-D4-E5-F6

That’s your MAC Address.

Now let’s continue… we need to fill up the following:

• All MAC Address In Current LAN: Enter the MAC Address of your Child PC.

• Website Description: A unique description for each website you want to apply the rules for.

• Allowed Domain Name Enter up-to 8 domain names or website name that you want your kids have access to. For instance; wikipedia.com or wikihow.com. Any domain that is not listed here gets blocked.

• Effective Time The time which the rule should be in effect. By default, Anytime is the only option. But you could add more schedule to the drop down menu. For instance; every weekends or every Saturday.

  To create a new schedule, go to Schedule menu under Advance Settings > Access Control.

  For demo purpose, let’s create an every Sunday schedule. So we should put that in Schedule Description. Next, tick Select Days for Day, then tick Sun. If you want to rule to take in effect for the whole day, check all day - 24 hours. Otherwise, you need to set Start Time and End Time. Click save to commit your settings.

  Now, you should be able to select every Sunday schedule for Effective Time.

  [caption id="attachment_2201" align="aligncenter" width="746"] Add new schedule using this page.[/caption]

• Status Of course, this is pretty self-explanatory. So click Enabled and save your settings.

Step 4: Test your settings

Test your settings by actually using your kid’s device and browse the Internet. The values you set in the Allowed Domain field should be given access to. Generally, what’s not included here should be all blocked.

…and that’s it!

That’s a Wrap!

There you have it, you just configured your Router to intercept and prevent any web sites from being accessed by your kids.

On a side note, this will not prevent a smart a-s-s kid from accessing any other websites that you did not include in your rule. There are techniques to circumvent this procedure. But I think that’s way too advance for an average kid.

Essentially, this procedure should prevent your kids from accessing inappropriate contents without your knowledge.

So this has been my guide on How to block web sites using your TP-LINK TL-WR720N Router. You may use this procedure to similar models and make.

Please feel free to post your comments below.

One last thing, if you wanted to throttle the speed of your Internet connection, read the guide on how to limit WiFi speed in TP Link TL-WR720N Router

Looking for a commercial grade, reliable, free POS software that you can deploy in your Restaurant or Retail Store? Jump in & learn about Unicenta and read the step-by-step instruction on how you would install and configure it.

Before starting with this guide, I’d like you to know something about Unicenta and what it could do for your business.

Updates

• Now available: Installing uniCenta 4.x.x on Linux Mint 19
• Now available: 2016 Guide on How to Install Unicenta 3.91.x on Ubuntu 16.04

What is Unicenta oPOS?

Stylized as "Unicenta oPOS", is a Touchscreen-enabled FREE Point-of-Sale System that you could use in your Restaurant, Amusement Park, Giftshop, Bars and Cafes. It is a great alternative for Electronic Cash Registers and expensive paid POS Systems. It’s a FREE POS software for Windows, Mac and Linux.

With Unicenta, you get a full-blown, commercial grade Point of Sale Software, that is capable of storing thousands of product list, and completing thousands of transactions. You could also create as many terminal operators or cashiers as you may need them. You need first to hookup Unicenta to a database like those popular, commercial-grade and open source database software like MySQL and Apache Derby.

It is very popular and in-use around the world, with over 180K downloads last year, since it is very easy to use and very flexible.

It’s not only free to download by the way, it is also free to own and it’s Open Source.

Unicenta oPOS is available in 16 languages and comes with English UK as the default language. Though you can change the language from it’s configuration menu. See data below.

Language Packs:

• English UK (default)
• Albanian
• American
• Arabic
• Argentinian
• Croatian
• Dutch
• Estonian
• French
• German
• Italian
• Mexican
• Portuguese
• Spanish
• Swedish

Unicenta’s author and publisher is Jack Gerrard

Features

Unicenta has the best features for an ideal POS Software, such feature is the Category/Product Import. This feature is very useful and a must have especially when you’re just starting out with Unicenta. You could easily import your product list with selling price, buying price, barcode, reference number and category name from an easy to edit CSV file.

Other Features:

• 40+ High Quality Reports (Sales, Current Inventory, etc.)
• Automatic screen resolution scaling from 800 x 600 up
• Category + Product Import
• Cloud hosted database capable
• Customers, Products, Inventory and Multi-Location management
• Highly User customizable Sales screen, Ticket and Receipt layouts
• Ideal for mobile retailers POS / Pop-up type stores
• Internal Payment Gateways (US) and External terminal support – Chip and Pin
• Inventory Management
• Multiple Printers + Output to Kitchen Display monitors
• Powerful scripting language
• User and Role Security (i.e.; Admin; Manager; Clerk; Guest Role)

How To Install Unicenta oPOS?

Installing Unicenta is very easy, you could be up and running in minutes. But you might ask the question, what about Unicenta system requirements?

Well, it’s not high really. You’re not running any games on your target machine, so the minimum requirements below is recommended.

Unicenta System Requirements

System Hardware:

• 512MB RAM – minimum but more is better
• 70MB Disk space – more if not using default DB
• Java 1.7 JRE – 32bit or 64bit for Windows XP SP3
• Java 1.8 JRE – 32bit or 64bit for Windows 7/8

Peripherals:

• Barcode Scanner – USB, Serial, Scanpal2 or compatible
• Receipt Printer – ESC/POS, JavaPOS, SurePOS, Star, Ithica, EPSON
• Report Printer – Local or Networked
• Cash Drawer – Serial via Printer
• Customer Display – Serial 2 line x 20 char
• Mag’ Stripe Reader – K’board, Generic or Intelligent
• Weighing Scale – Casio, Dialog1, SamsungESP or compatible

Operating System:

• Windows – XP SP3, 7,8
• Linux – CentOS, Ubuntu, Others
• Mac OSX – 10.6.8 and later

Databases:

• Derby Embedded – Built-in Default
• MySQL – Local, Remote or Cloud
• Derby Client/Server – version 10.6 or later
• HSQLDB – version 2.0 or later
• Oracle – Local or Remote – 10g or later
• PostgreSQL – Local, Remote or Cloud

Installation Procedures

Before starting of with the installation, you must have already downloaded the latest version of Unicenta oPOS (Restaurant & Retail POS Software Free Download – Here. In addition to this, you also must have already installed the Java JRE for your chosen Operating System. If not yet, then downloadand install Java JRE first for your specific OS.

For direct downloads of various versions of Unicenta oPOS Software for Windows visit this page.

For direct downloads of various version of Unicent oPOS Software for Linux visit this page.

For Windows XP: Java JRE 1.7 Offline Installer – Click Here For Windows 7/8 32bit: Java JRE 1.8 Offline Installer – Click Here For Windows 7/8 64bit: Java JRE 1.8 Offline Installer – Click Here For Mac OS X (10.7.3 or newwer) – Click Here

For Windows XP/7/8

Setting up Unicenta oPOS on Windows-based computers is very straight forward. You just have to download the installer file and fire it up.

• Step 1: Double click the downloaded Unicenta installer file, it comes in an exe file. Then click "RUN" button to start the installation.
• Step 2: Select the "Installation Language" and click the "OK" button.
• Step 3: Select the Java Runtime to use and click "OK" button.
• Step 4: Click next and then accept the License Agreement on the next screen. Click "I accept the agreement" radio button and click "Next" button three times. That should start the insallation process, it will just take a few seconds to finish.
• Step 5: Click the "Finish" button to finish the install wizard. Congratulation! You have now successfully installed Unicenta oPOS Software.

For Ubuntu/Linux

If you’re on Ubuntu Desktop (14.04) or Linux Mint, then download first the binaries (no installers) from this page. You need to have Java installed in your system to make Unicenta work. Java JRE comes pre-installed with Linux Mint but not on Ubuntu Desktops, so you don’t have to install it prior of installing Unicenta oPOS in Linux Mint, but you need to install Java if you’re on Ubuntu Desktop.

Read further below and read how you would install Unicenta on Ubuntu-based Linux. In my case, I’ve tested it on Ubuntu 14.04 without issues.

• Step 1: Install Java JRE in Ubuntu by launching a terminal (ctrl+alt+t). Then enter the following command and hit "enter" key.

  sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jre

  You need to type in your user’s password or admin password for this. Hit "enter" key after typing your password and you’ll be asked if you wanted to continue, press "y" key to continue with the installation.

  If you ask "how to check if Java is installed on Ubuntu Linux (Java JRE)?", then just type "which java" in your Ubuntu terminal. It should output /usr/bin/java.

• Step 2: Download the binaries in zip format for the latest Unicenta oPOS Software from this page. In Ubuntu or Linux Mint, the default download location path is /home/your-user-name/Downloads.

• Step 3: After downloading the ZIP file, copy the file to /usr/bin/. To do this, open a terminal (ctrl+alt+t) and type in sudo cp ~/Downloads/unicentaopos-xxx.zip /usr/bin/. Substitute xxx with the version number of your downloaded Unicenta ZIP file.

  Extract the downloaded Unicenta ZIP file.

  How to extract the zip file in Ubuntu? To extract the ZIP file, switch back to your terminal and type in sudo unzip unicentaopos-xxx.zip -d /usr/bin/unicenta/

• Step 4: Create a launcher. So the question again is… "How to create an application launcher in Ubuntu" for Unicenta oPOS?

  To create a Launcher for Unicenta, create a new text file with a file extension of .desktop. To do this, you need again to use a terminal and make the necessary configurations.

  Fire up a terminal (ctrl+alt+t) and type in nano ~/Desktop/unicenta.desktop. Nano is a Text Editor for Linux by the way.

  A new screen should pop-up, now enter the following texts:

  ############ Start ############
  
  [Desktop Entry]
  Encoding=UTF-8
  Version=1.0
  Name=Unicenta
  Comment=Fires up Unicenta oPOS
  Type=Application
  Exec=/usr/bin/unicenta/start.sh
  Icon=/usr/bin/unicenta/unicentaopos.ico
  
  ############ End ##############

  When done, save the file by pressing ctrl + o then ENTER key. That is, control key + letter O, then hit enter key to save the file. That’s how to save a file in terminal using Nano Text Editor.

• Step 5: Now you must set permission for your newly created Application Launcher and permit the file to be executable. To do just that, open a terminal and type in chmod +x ~/Desktop/unicenta.desktop and then hit ENTER key.

  Check out your desktop now, you should now see a new shortcut with icon for Unicenta.

  Now check your launcher by either double-clicking on it, or right-click on it and then clicking OPEN. Unicenta oPOS should now open. If not, make sure you entered the right path to your extracted Unicenta folder. Double check your Exec path in your unicenta.desktop file, make sure that you’re pointing to the correct location.

  If you see similar image like the one below, then congratulation! You’ve successfully installed Unicenta oPOS Free Point of Sale Software to your Ubuntu Linux Desktop.

  Reference Image:

For Linux Mint

How to install Unicenta in Linux Mint?.

Putting up an instance of Unicenta oPOS on LinuxMint is slightly easier than setting it up on Ubuntu Desktop, since you don’t have to install the Java JRE for Linux, since it comes pre-installed with Linux Mint.

• Step 1: Download the software if you haven’t yet. Download the latest version from this page.

• Step 2: Copy the downloaded ZIP file (ie unicentaopos-381.zip) to /usr/bin/

  To do just that, open a terminal (ctrl+alt+T) and type in sudo ~/Downloads/unicenta-381.zip /usr/bin/ Then hit ENTER key, type in your password when prompted.

• Step 3: Extract the ZIP file by typing the below command in your terminal:

  sudo unzip unicentaopos-381.zip -d /usr/bin/unicenta

  Then hit ENTER key.

  The files should be extracted inside /usr/bin/unicenta/

• Step 4: Create an Application Launcher.

  How to create a launcher in Linux Mint? To create one, just do the following: Open up a terminal (ctrl+alt+t) and type in nano ~/Desktop/unicenta.desktop.

  A new screen should pop-up, now enter the following texts:

  ############ Start ############
  
  [Desktop Entry]
  Encoding=UTF-8
  Version=1.0
  Name=Unicenta
  Comment=Fires up Unicenta oPOS
  Type=Application
  Exec=/usr/bin/unicenta/start.sh
  Icon=/usr/bin/unicenta/unicentaopos.ico
  
  ############ End ##############

  Then save the file by pressing Ctrl + O + ENTER.

• Step 5: Set Execute Permission for the new launcher.

  Set user permission to execute the newly created Unicenta Launcher.

  Open a terminal and then type in chmod +x ~/Desktop/unicenta.desktop then press ENTER.

  Enter your password when prompted to do so.

• Step 6: Launch the Application using the newly created launcher to try it out. Unicenta should launch and you should see a screen similar to the image below.

  Reference Image:

  If you see the Unicenta Login Screen, then congratulations! You successfully installed Unicenta oPOS Software in Linux.

It’s a Wrap

There you have it folks, I really hope that you learned how to install Unicenta especially on Linux. Since it’s a bit more challenging to set it on Ubuntu or Linux Mint than on Windows. Installing it on Windows is just a few mouse clicks away.

Doing these things by yourself will save you some money. The next thing you should do with your setup is to try and test it with some data.

If you need further help with regard to this tutorial, feel free to ask and post your comments below.

For VERY URGENT help, contact me through this page.

Looking for Cloud POS providers lately? Well, this is your lucky day, ‘coz I’ve listed down the popular companies that offer a Cloud-based Point of Sale system. This is not a review type of post, but rather an info about each company that offer the Cloud service.

What is Cloud in Cloud POS

In a nutshell, the word Cloud in the term Cloud POS or Cloud Point of Sale, simply means an online service. It’s like a hosting service where a hosting company hosts your website and make it available publicly.

But when it comes to Cloud POS, the company (or I call it provider) owns the hardware/infrastructure and software and make it available to you as a product or service. The service is now offered to you as a remote POS System, where you can use and access it from any part of the world where there is Internet connection.

A Cloud POS by design, is easy to scale. You can add more computing resources like; RAM, CPU, Storage and bandwidth. You could either make a request to let the company do it for you, or you could do it yourself by just clicking a few buttons. But this depends how your Control Panel or Dashboard’s functionalities. Some companies offer a complex Control Panel that let’s you add more RAM or CPU power. It’s like a Cloud VPS, a remote virtual private server hosted by remote companies like Digital Ocean. Other Cloud POS providers does not offer you a control panel (or Dashboard) at all, they just ask for additional monthly charge to hookup additional POS terminal to their service.

What is Cloud POS

Cloud POS Systems are actually remote machines just like any computer servers. It runs a proprietary software and a GUI is accessible by the user, making it their front-end Point of Sale System.

Usually, a Point of Sale software (like uniCenta) should be installed locally to a physical computer. A single instance of a running POS Software installed on a single computer, with the necessary peripherals attached to it is called a POS Terminal.

With Cloud-based POS, you don’t need to install any software, you just have to signup for an account, then configure some stuffs on your account and you’re ready to go. Of course, you need to attached and configure some hardware too. Like receipt printer or barcode scanner. Also, you got to have an Internet connection.

Signing up for a Cloud POS account will require you to have a Computer, iPad/Tablet or Mobile Phone with the latest Internet Browser installed. For iPad or Tablet based Cloud POS, some provider lets you download and install their official App instead of a browser-based solution.

Cloud POS Provider List

Here comes the main part of this post. You could click on the jump links and it should take you to each companies profile and my write-ups about them.

• Shopify POS
• NCR Silver
• Shopkeep

1. Shopify POS

Website: https://www.shopify.com/pos

Shopify started as an online Snowboard Equipment Store. They built the platform for themselves, but later they realized that other stores were in need of a platform where they can build their retail businesses, in a hassle-free way. And thus, Shopify Store was born on the year 2006.

Today, Shopify offers another service which they call Shopify POS. The company markets this service or product as the Point of Sale System for iPad.

For customers who wants to avail of this service, what they need to have is any Android or iOS capable mobile devices. Because Shopify POS can only be access through their official app. You can download the App via Apple AppStore for iOS devices or Google Play for Android devices.

Key Features

Point of sale software that’s easy to use – That’s what Shopify POS claims.

But you really couldn’t tell ’till you’ve tried it. Below are features of a Shopify POS, as they advertise.

• Payments – Use your free Shopify card reader to accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express. As advertised, you’ll get a low credit card rate, and no hidden fees.

  You could use your own Credit or Debit card terminal, if you already have one. Make sure it’s a wireless one.

  Split tenders – it means you can accept two or more payment types in a single transaction. Let’s say, a buyer purchased an item worth 100 Dollars, the buyer can could pay 50 Dollars in credit card (or multiple credit cards), plus 50 Dollars cash.

  Gift cards – Customer could pay using Gift Cards instead of Cash.

• Custom Sale – You can create a custom items and set the price to anything you want. This requires user role or escalated employee privilege.

  In case the item is not yet on your POS account, you can quickly add the custom item and set the right price.

• Store Mangement

  Accounting integration – You can integrate Shopify POS with QuickBooks, Xero, and morre, to help you with your bookkeeping needs.

  Staff Accounts – Create multiple employee accounts, each with a secure password. All transaction is tracked by accounts. Available in Retail Package only.

  Customer profiles – Create customer profiles and encode their details.

  Email Marketing – With the MailChimp App, you can launch your Email Marketing campaign using your collected email addresses via the Customer Profile feature.

• Free Hardware – Free credit card reader, get your free hardware and start accepting credit card payments.

• 24/7 support – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week support is offered, via email, live chat or phone.

  On top of this, you could also ask support from their Discussion Forums and Knowledgebase articles

• Free 14-day trial – Access to a free trial account for 14 days, that let’s you test drive the system.

Price

Shopify POS offers a monthly plan, for as low as 9 USD. For a complete price plans, checkout this page.

2. NCR Silver

Website: http://www.ncrsilver.com/

NCR Silver is another provider which is a US-based company located at Alpharetta, Georgia, approximately 20 minutes outside of Atlanta. The company has been around for 4 Years now, but their parent company NCR (a glocal tech company) has long been around since 1884. NCR stands for National Cash Register, the company that sold the very first Mechanical Cash Register, invented by James Ritty in 1879.

So it’s safe to say the this company knows the heck about Cash Registers and Point-of-Sale Systems. Beside, the company is a global company who specialize on hardware/software and sells point-of-sale terminals, automated teller machines, check processing systems, barcode scanners, and business consumables.

NCR Silver Bundles

NCR Silver Register™ – NCR Silver offers a number of different bundles. One they call is the NCR Silver Register™. As advertised on their website, this bundle is an all-in-one tablet Point-of-Sale system that comes with the basic hardware for small businesses. It comes with a built-in MSR (Magnetic Strip Reader), USB ports and Wired Ethernet Port. The Tablet runs on Android, but it’s a closed system. That means, you can’t run games and you won’t be able to browse the Internet. It’s purely built for business.

NCR Silver Register™ have two different bundles called, Silver Register Standard Bundle™ and the Silver Register Retail Bundle™.

• Silver Register Standard Bundle™ – This bundles includes the most basic setup for a Point-of-Sale system. The bundle includes the touchscreen table with software already installed, credit card reader, customer display, 13 inches cash drawer and a receipt printer.

  Price – You can have the *Silver Register Standard Bundle by purchasing the bundle or just lease it monthly. You could buy the whole bundle for USD 1099 or lease it monthly for USD 56.

• Silver Register Retail Bundle – This bundle from NCR Silver is packed with touchscreen tablet with POS software already installed, customer display, cash drawer, receipt printer and a barcode scanner. This bundle is ideal for retail business that makes use of barcodes in their retail products. If you have a huge inventories of retail products and you make your own barcodes, then probably you need other hardware options like barcode printer.

  Price – You can buy the bundle for USD 1249 or lease it monthly for USD 66.

3. Shopkeep

Website: http://www.shopkeep.com/

Another additional entry to the list is Shopkeep. This company was born in Brooklyn, New York on the year 2008. Customer support is one of their top-priority, that’s the reason why the company had won a Stevie Gold Award for providing the best customer care. Stevie Awards by the way, is an american business award competition that recognizes the accomplishments and contributions of companies or individuals.

Customers love to use Shopkeep because of their simple pricing structure, ease of use and a great inventory system integration.

Key Features

Customers love to use Shopkeep because of their simple pricing structure, ease of use and a great inventory system. On top of this, their POS system have a tight integration feature with Quickbooks, making your life easy when working with accounting/bookkeeping tasks. Setup is also a breeze.

• Payments – Accept different payments. Take cash, credit cards, mobile payments, or a combination. It also has a Gift Card integration so you could print and sell your own Gift Card and customers redeem it from your store.

  On top of this, using the Shopkeep Reader you can accept payments from chip card payments and Apply Pay™ making payments a painless process.

• Receipts – You could offer printed receipts or send it through emails.

• Reports – Get real-time reporting from anywhere, using the official Shopkeep App. View reports like, daily gross sales and net sales.

• Inventory Management – You can manage your inventories in bulk, using the CSV import function of the system.

  Inventory alert is another cool feature too, that Shopkeep has to offer. You could setup a trigger for items that are running low.

• Email Marketing – With Mailchimp integration, you can create your own mailing list by making customer profile and adding their email addresses into the system. Blast your emails in bulk and send new offers/discounts to returning customers.

• Customer Care – Every so often your POS System may experience some troubles. Without the proper skills to fix the issue yourself, you could lose sales or anything related to financial transaction. So you need immediate answers during these times, and Shopkeep customer care will be there to support you 24/7/365.

• Staff Management – Create a number of employee user level, where each level have different privileges, roles and access levels. Also included in this feature is an employee time tracker where the system records the time-in and time-out of an employee.

Price

Shopkeep offers a very simple pricing system. They offer a montly charge of USD 59, without the hardware.

What’s included in the Shopkeep POS?

• The Shopkeep POS Software
• ShopKeep Pocket™ app for iOS
• Free ShopKeep support 24/7/365

It’s a Wrap!

It can be overwhelming when choosing the right Cloud POS system for your small-business. But making the right choice can save you a huge amount of time and money later.

In my opinion, you should base your decision using the following pointers; ease of use, simple pricing, customer care, data security and quality hardware.

Ease of use, your Cloud POS System should have an intuitive interface but easy to setup and use to for quick transaction processing. Training staffs like cashiers and manager should only take minutes not hours nor days. Inventory management should not be complicated and confusing to learn, it should be straight forward.

Simple pricing, where you could pay-as-you-go with no strings attached.

Customer care, which you can call and ask for help in times of trouble twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. You can’t afford to close your store for one day just because your POS System is broken.

So there you have it! Those are the 3 Cloud POS providers you could choose from this 2016. There are other providers out there and I’ve listed them in this post.

Last week (August 2016), I’ve upgraded my Linuxmint Machine from version 17 to version 18, which is called "Linux Mint 18 – Sarah". Alongside with this, I’ve also upgraded my pfSense box to version 2.3.2. This after, I can no longer import my OpenVPN connection settings, with the error "Cannot import VPN Connection".

This solution works for both Ubuntu and Linuxmint.

In my case, the exact error says like this…

Cannot import VPN Connection

The file pfsense-udp-1194-linuxmint.ovpn could not be read or does not contain recognized VPN connection information.

Error: the plugin does not support import capability.

Please take note, that I’ve used the Cinnamon Edition of LM18, which was release on June 2016. This version is based on Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS (Xenial Xerus) edition.

When the time I’m setting up my VPN connection again (using pfSense), Network Manager failed to import my previous configuration. Take note, that my configuration is known to work with pfSense before, using Linuxmint 17. No issues or what so ever. I’ve imported the config files using Linuxmint’s network manager without a problem.

You might want to read my guide on How To Setup OpenVPN From pfSense’s Web-GUI.

After the said upgrades, I can no longer import the previously working configs using the network manager on Linuxmint 18, with the following error.

Reference Image: "Cannot import VPN Connection" error.

[caption id="attachment_2233" align="aligncenter" width="598"] Reference Image – Can’t Import OpenVPN Configuration[/caption]

So I did some troubleshooting, and tried using a different OpenVPN configuration file. This time, I’ve used a Linux distro called "ClearOS". It’s a great server distro for both homes and small offices, that can do many things like act as an OpenVPN server.

I did the setup on a Virtualbox Guest machine, and downloaded the OpenVPN config files. Then imported the configs using network manager, and voila! My configuration was imported successfully.

I started to think what could be the problem, is it Linuxmint or pfsense?

And so I did some trial and error stuffs, and also did some research. Long story short, Network Manager app has gone buggy again according to what I’ve read. Sometimes it work, sometimes it doesn’t. It works for some files, and doesn’t for others, like in my case, it does not work on my file (pfSense OpenVPN config files).

Then after a few hours of research, trial&errors, I decided not to use the Import Function, and instead, manually create the OpenVPN connection. And this time, it actually worked!

If you have similar case as I’ve had, then follow through and get around that “Cannot import VPN Connection” error.

Steps I Did

Below are the steps I took to get around with the error. Take note that my machine runs on Linuxmint 18 Cinnamon Edition, while my pfSense is on version 2.3.2.

• Step 1: pfSense OpenVPN Client Export Settings

  These you can find on https://pfsense.ip.address/vpn_openvpn_export.php

  …under Client Export menu

1. Verify Server CN – Set to:

   Automatic – Use verify-x509-name (OpenVPN 2.3+) where possible

2. Block Outside DNS – Checked

3. Use Random Local Port – Checked

• Step 2: Download & extract the configuration file for your specific user. This time, don’t use Archive, choose Viscosity Bundle instead, under "Viscosity (Mac OS X and Windows)".

  Reference Image:

  [caption id="attachment_2234" align="aligncenter" width="1156"] Reference Image – OpenVPN Config File[/caption]

• Step 3: Left-click on the Network Manager icon (from system tray), and left-click on Network Connections. A new box should open.

• Step 4: Click on the Add button, and choose OpenVPN from the drop-down option. Then click Create button. A new box should open.

  Reference Image:

  [caption id="attachment_2235" align="aligncenter" width="469"] Reference Image – Network Manager Connection Window[/caption]

• Step 5: Enter & fill up the necessary fields.

  1. Connection Name

     pfSense-VPN – for example

  2. Gateway

     pfsense.ip.address:openvpn_port – see example below:

     192.168.1.1:1194

  3. Under Authentication > Type, choose Password with Certificates (TLS).

  4. User Certificate

     Click on the field and browse to cert.crt file.

  5. CA Certificate

     Click on the field and browse to ca.crt file.

  6. Private Key

     Click on the field and browse to key.key file.

  7. Fill up User Name and Password. This should be your username & password under your pfSense account.

     Private Key Password is the one you configured under…

     Certificate Export Options > Password Protect Certificate.

• Step 6: Click on Advance button and configure the following.

  Reference Image:

  [caption id="attachment_2236" align="aligncenter" width="673"] Reference Image – Linuxmint OpenVPN Connection Window – Advance Tab[/caption]

  1. Tick Use LZO data compression.
  2. Tick Set Virtual Device Type: TUN

  Then click Security Tab.

• Step 7: Under Security tab, set Cipher & HMAC Authenticaiton. To know about this config, open config.conffile (file downloaded from pfSense) and look for the value set for cipher and auth.

  cipher value goes to Cipher, auth value goes to HMAC Authenticaiton.

  Then click on TLS Authentication tab.

  Reference Image:

  [caption id="attachment_2238" align="aligncenter" width="667"] Reference Image – Network Manager Connection Window – Security Tab[/caption]

• Step 8: Configure TLS Authentication.

  1. Tick Verify peer (server) certificate nsCertType designation, while setting Remote peer certificate nsCert designation to Server.

  2. Tick Use additional TLS authentication. Then set Key File value to ta.key. Click on the field provided and browse for the file.

  3. Set Key Direction to 1. Click on OK button, then finally Save.

  Reference Image:

  [caption id="attachment_2239" align="aligncenter" width="667"] Reference Image – Linuxmint OpenVPN Connection Window – TLS Authentication Tab[/caption]

• Step 8: Connect!

  On your Linuxmint machine, click on the Network Manager icon, then click your OpenVPN connection name (configured in step 5-1). You should should be able to connect successfully.

  Watch this YouTube for reference.

It’s a Wrap!

With this How-To, hope you got around that Cannot import VPN Connection issue and had created your VPN connection. In case it didn’t worked out, feel free to shoot your question using the comment section below and ask for further help. I will do my best to answer them, when I have the time.

In this post I’m going to tackle how you would choose the best OpenCart Themes for your eCommerce Website. You’ll have an idea on how you would choose the right one for your site by knowing the various criteria to take note off when looking for the right template. Let us look more deeper and check what’s under the hood and not just visual style or design. I am not a wanna-be expert here, just sharing my insight and what to look for in a Theme.

Jump Links

• Theme Criteria

  • Features
  • Design
  • Usability
  • Code
  • SEO Optimized

• The best OpenCart Theme – IMO

• More OpenCart 2.3.0.x Themes

A Theme should not only look good, but must also perform great in terms of speed, usability and SEO. In order to look for one, we need to see underneath the code and not just the rendered output or what users can only see with their browsers. You also need to check the code and how easy it is to modify in case you need to. Because there will always be a need to customize it further so it would be unique. A good Theme must not also be bloated with features that you won’t be using in the end. That would affect the performance of the site if that would be the case. So don’t be compelled by just looking at features and designs, you should also consider simplicity and performance.

Now, if I were to choose my own OpenCart Theme, I would check for the following criteria:

• Features
• Design
• Usability
• Code
• SEO Optimized

Criteria

The following are the criteria that you can check on, when looking for a Theme. Take note, that this is how I choose my Theme if I were the one buying it.

Version Compatibility

This should be the first consideration when looking for a Theme. That’s atleast according to me, you may also take this as the last step if you want to. But for me, I will take this as the very initial step.

You may want to head over to ThemeForest OpenCart Theme section, and use the filter block on the right side of the page. Click on Software Version then choose your currently installed OpenCart version.

After that, explore through the result page and use the criteria below when choosing.

Also Read: Installing OpenCart 2.x.x on various platforms

Features

This might also be your first consideration when looking for a better Theme. Features are capabilities and functions that the Theme Author is advertising as included with the Theme. These are the things it can do for your OpenCart website. These comes with extra files called extensions or mods, other comes hard-coded with the Theme files, but this is rarely done. Most, features/functions comes as extensions or add-ons. One example of Theme feature is the Mega Menu. Mega menus are versatile and usually complicated to setup. You can add several items to it and not just product categories. You can add a block that contains images or a summary of feature product. Another example of feature, is the product or image slider. OpenCart comes with a default slider, but third-party Themes offers more features and complex image slider. Some slider can be customized and you can add text overlays and effects.

If you’re starting an online store, you can do a research by typing the feature you want, for instance; "opencart theme with mega menu" or "opencart clothing theme". By doing this, you are filtering the result into a more specific Theme Type or Style, you can see and review the Themes you might want, then scrutinize it later using the other criteria. If you see the features you need in a Theme, then take note of the name for deeper and later review.

Next thing you need to look for is Design.

Design

Basically this is the overall look of the Theme, and this include the layout and placement of blocks, color scheme and font-faces and the whole system flow.

After looking for the features you want, the next thing you should check is this Criteria.

Let’s say you found a Theme that has the features you want, your next move is to check the overall design. Are you attracted to it? Do you really like it? Or do you like the font combination and layout? Maybe the product product page looks awesome to you? If so, then rate it between the scale of 1-10 then take note of it.

Take note though, that what I mean of "Awesome" is not necessarily bloated with design element or lots of sliders on the front. It should be neat and simple. Remember, too much design element may bloat the Theme’s assets like; JavaScript and CSS, thereby increasing the page size which is critical to faster page load.

Usability

Third thing to check is "Usability". This may include the question ‘how steep the learning curve is’. Is it too difficult to use the front-end during the first visit? Or using the site is too easy that users can find what they want in just a breeze?

Furthermore, this also means how users can efficiently use your site with ease and with satisfaction.

This could be both for your users or you (the Admin). I’ve mentioned above that some Themes may have complex features/function. And usually you will have to configure such feature via the Admin Dashboard. Theme vendors usually offer a demo, this includes admin dashboard demo. Using the demo, you can take a look and check how the features/functions were configured. You will have the chance to configure it yourself, and right away you can tell how easy or difficult it is to learn – how to set it. Is it too easy or difficult to learn? Have you configured it without resorting to manuals or guides? Now, rate the the Theme and take note of it.

Also don’t forget to check/test the front-end of the Theme and set your foot in the shoes of a buyer. Test the site how easy or hard for the user to find what they’re looking for, or easy it is to checkout. Can the user follow on with the buying process without reading your FAQ page, or is it too complicated? Ask these questions to yourself and rate the Theme.

Don’t choose a Theme because you like it, instead choose one that will benefit your users.

Don’t just buy any Theme you would want because you like the image slider feature or the mega menu.

Don’t pick randomly because you like the design, it looks awesome and trendy.

Instead, think of your users, will it benefit them?

Code

This criteria requires you to at least understand what’s beneath the page, the Page Source. Not necessarily the PHP codes, but HTML, JavaScript and CSS styles. You don’t actually need to learn how to code, you only need to know the very basic of it. Please read further to know what you need.

You need to check the source code in the Theme by checking the demo page, and hit ctrl + u.

Now, you should be able to see how many CSS styles and JavaScript were loaded. Honestly, it is time consuming and difficult looking for Themes with minimal number of these. Just try your best and look for something that has the least number of external CSS & JavaScript files, no exact number for the minimum.

Furthermore, check how CSS is delivered, to avoid "Optimize CSS Delivery" warning when using Google’s PageSpeed Insight

A good score to have when using the above tool is 85. But it’s the score you get based on several other factors.

Most Themes out there are bloated with JS and CSS files. The purpose of having a minimal page asset/resource, is to avoid too many calls, back and fort trip to call and render the page by the browser. Basically too much CSS call and JavaScripts may produce a negative impact on performance or page load time. But mostly, Theme developers couldn’t avoid such issue, and their Themes ends up to having too many CSS and JS files, that leads to slow page load.

Also, it would be great to have those JavaScript loaded at the bottom of the page. Again, for better performance and page load time.

The fewer the JS and CSS files, the better.

Some Theme Developer combine all their style sheet into one css file, while inlining other styles and JavaScript to avoid "render blocking".

If you want to check how heavy a Theme’s page size, head over to tools.pingdom.com and drop the Theme Demo URL – to check the Theme’s load time, page size, number of CSS & JavaScript files, and few other details.

Note: Page Load Time can significantly affect conversion. Users tends to browse away your page if it loads to slow. In addition, don’t bore your users with circling loading gif animation while waiting your page to load, for nearly 60 seconds. Instead, impress them with your fast loading website.

In addition, the server that the Theme is currently on, can significantly affect the load time and response time. An optimized server will greatly help with this.

Ideally, your site should load within 2-3 seconds. You can use the tool I mentioned above to check on any Theme you would want.

Note: Page Load Time is one of Google’s Search Engine Ranking Factor.

SEO Optimized

It would be best to have a Theme that is SEO-optimized.

Basically, a page that has been optimized could have a better performance in Search Engine compared to a competitor site that is not SEO-optimized at all.

If you found a Theme that has a built-in SEO module, add-on or extension, then grab that Theme, provided it passed the other criteria. An OpenCart theme with schema.org markup would be great, especially when using the product schema markup.

Also, a Theme with add-on that can rewrite a product URL according to what you want is a good one.

Overall, look for a Theme that has a built-in feature that can handle the items discussed on this post.

The Best OpenCart Theme

For me, taking into consideration all the points I’ve mentioned above, the most excellent Theme for OpenCart is a Theme called Shoppica.

For me, this is the most suitable Theme for any OC-based online store. You can use it with any niche store, like; clothing or fashion store, electronics store, jewelry or even handicrafts you personally made and selling it online.

It’s an all-purpose Theme that fits on any type of OpenCart store. Best of all, it supports the latest OC version 2.3.0.x, as of November 6, 2016 – the time of writing this article.

It’s been out for years and continuously updated so it would work with the most recent version of OpenCart. Active bug fixing and improvement are being thrown in to this great Theme.

Shoppica Theme has been popular, ever since OC v1.5.

Okay now, let me discuss about the good features of this awesome Theme.

Shoppica Features

For me, the best feature that this Theme has is it’s Simplicity. I mean, looking at the Theme is so clean and simple, not cluttered and everything is layed out neatly. I would want this instead of those with fancy and big image sliders which causes your page to load longer.

1. Page Builder – From the Admin Dashboard, you can create a simple to complex page layout by just draging and dropping any blocks you want. You can choose from 40+ custom blocks like; Facebook or Tweeter like box, Latest products or articles and many more.

2. Responsive Layout – This theme uses Twitter Boostrap Framework, a framework not only used for responsive design but also for easy prototyping or custom modification if you want to. Most freelance developers or web designer knows about this thing, and in case you need a custom work, you can easily find one who knows how to work on it.

   The responsive layout feature makes your Theme fits on various screen sizes, be it lapttop, desktop, tablet or mobile device.

3. Multi-store Compatible – It means this Theme is compatible with OpenCart Mutli-Store setup. A setup where you can run multiple individual store with their own and separate categories and products, using same instance of OpenCart. No need for multiple installation. So with this feature, you can use the Theme on any store you configured.

4. Mega Menu – Yes, you can create mega menus with this Theme, similar to Mega Menus that the Pavo Theme usually has in their themes.

   Reference Image:

Shoppica’s Usability

If you test their Demo, you’ll quickly notice that the layout and flow is so smooth and easy to navigate. For me, this is the best example of a usable Theme. Shopping for a product is easy, as well as for checking out. Easy to follow flow, no confusing pop-up blocks and crazy hover effects.

Another great feature included by the way is, the one click Sample Data installation. With this feature, it won’t be difficult for store admins to setup Shoppica theme and make it look like the demo. You can quickly install demo products/categories and settings with one mouse-click.

Shoppica’s Design

Very simple design which is great, since you can make it more complex by adding more blocks, modules from the Admin Dashboard.

I’ve used the PageSpeed Insight tool to test how fast the demo is, and it got a score of 80. Take note, that other factors can still boost up the score. If you have your own VPS and use this Theme, then optimized your server… well sure you can bump up the score up to 85+ more.

Shoppica’s Code

If you look at the page source, you can see that it has minimal (2 of each – to render the page) CSS and JS files, which is so great, because the browser can load the page quicker. Take a look at the screenshot below. I used pingdom.com to test http://shoppica.net/ – the home page. See the load time which is 1.70 s, while page size is almost 1MB.

Take note that you can still shrink the size by further employing optimization techniques.

Screenshot here:

If you compare other Themes you find outhere and use the tool above, you’ll see how slow their page load time is.

Shoppica is SEO Optimized

As already advertised in their Theme Forest page, this Theme is loaded with SEO feature. SEO functionality is in-built into the Theme. Function like; Product Meta Title Generator, SEO friendly URL generator, structured data markup using micro-data and few more others.

This Theme has more to offer, if you want to read all, you can visit the Theme Forest Page.

It’s a Wrap!

Choosing the best OpenCart theme for your store is not that hard. It’s time consuming, but it’s worth your time and money, especially when you have chosen the most efficient one. Take note of those criteria I mentioned above, when looking for the right theme. Take Shoppica as an example or purchase it straight away and look no further. You can use it with any niche/type of online store setup like; clothing store, jewelry store or electronic shop. It’s fast, SEO-optimized, simple but not ugly, actively developed and customer support is top-notch.

If you’re looking for something different, then just head over to ThemeForest and look for one.

If you have something more to add or have something to ask, feel free to comment below.

Also Read: Installing an OpenCart Theme.

Installing OpenCart Themes is not difficult as you might think. But for newbie webmasters or people who are knew to this kind of stuffs, it could be a big puzzle for them. So in this post, I will discuss the step-by-step tutorial on how you would do it correctly and error free. On this article, I’ll be using the latest version and that is version 2.3.0.2, as of writing this post.

Jump Links

• Localhost Installation
• Cpanel Installation – FTP
• Changing a Theme
• Quickest and safest way to install a Theme

• Quick Summary of the Steps

  • Step 1: Extract the theme file and copy
  • Step 2: Copy the files and paste
  • Step 3: Check your theme folder & make sure it was copied
  • Step 4: Activate the theme

Also Read: Choosing The Best OpenCart Theme

The difficulty of setting up a Theme depends how complicated your Theme is, but regardless, an install manual is always packed and included with your purchased Theme. You should be able to successfully install the theme using the manual. In case you still have issues, contact your developer who’s contact info is also included in the zip file.

A Theme Pack is usually a ZIP File, inside it, is folder named "upload". This is a packing convention for OpenCart Themes and developers are required to pack their themes like this. All files and directories inside the upload folder shall be copied to OpenCart’s Theme directory or as per instruction of your Theme developer.

Theme directory is located at:

• Linux-based

  your-opencart-install-directory/catalog/view/theme/

• Windows-based

  your-opencart-install-directory\catalog\view\theme</code>

Now, inside the theme folder holds all the Themes, and this includes the Default Theme. When installing a Theme, make sure that you create a folder inside the theme and name it accordingly. Then copy/upload all your theme files to that folder. But usually, your purchased theme already has this folder structure and what you only need is to upload all the files you see inside the upload folder, to your OpenCart install directory.

OpenCart Theme files and structure depends how complicated they are. Sometimes they require you to have the Default theme first, some requires uploading a number of files to; admin, catalog, image, system folder.

But when you purchased a ready-to-use Theme, all these hassles were already taken care of. All you need is to upload or copy files and folders you see inside the upload folder of your OpenCart instance. When copying or uploading the files, you need to overwrite all. That's the general idea of installing a theme.

Some Theme requires you to just upload a whole folder inside catalog/view/theme folder, while some require to upload and overwrite the files in your OpenCart install directory. Better read the quick start manual for specific instruction.

Note 1: When buying a Theme, make sure to check version compatibility with your OpenCart instance. See to it that the Theme supports your current version.

Note 2: If you're just starting out with OpenCart, it is better of using the Quick Start file for a quicker install of OC and your theme.

N-u-l-l-ed Themes

What is a n-u-l-l-e-d OpenCart Themes? - These are themes illegally distributed and offered as free downloads from known file-sharing and download sites. Usually these are popular themes with encoded license feature. But These types of themes will only work on the domain you have purchased license for.

Some smart4ss out there managed to decode them and make it work on any domain you would want.

Take note, though these are offered free, they carry modified files and malicious codes, which would cause damage in the end. So stay away from downloading these type of files. You may end up to a compromised or hacked servers, vps accounts, or hosting account, without you knowing it.

If you're looking for a free OpenCart themes, just search for it from the official site instead. Searching is easy, just go to the extension page and use the filter block on the left.

You can use the Theme on any domain you would want, the only catch is, they might not look as awesome as you want.

Link: https://www.opencart.com/index.php?route=extension/extension

Reference Image: [caption id="attachment_2306" align="aligncenter" width="741"] Screenshot - Searching for OpenCart Free Themes[/caption]

How To Install On Localhost

If you have read my OpenCart Installation tutorial, one method I've discussed there is the "portabe web server" method. The method which involved using a WAMP stack called USBWebserver. It's a localhost installation using Windows, and theme install process would not be difficult for newbies like myself.

The general idea is to copy all the necessary files to the target path, and in this case, an OpenCart instance on localhost. We don't have to use SSH/SCP or FTP client with this, just plain old copy/paste.

Same thing even when using XAMPP server for Windows.

Procedure

1. Step 1: Extract the theme file and copy.

2. Step 2: Copy the files and paste.

   Once extracted, look for the upload folder, and copy all the files.

   Now, go to your OC install directory and paste the files there and overwrite all.

3. Step 3: Check your theme folder & make sure it was copied.

   Make sure every files and folder from the upload directory were copied.

   Check the Theme folder by going to:

   catalog -> view -> theme and check the folders, make sure you have your theme folder there.

   Reference Image - in my case:

   [caption][/caption]

   Everything there? Then go to step 4.

4. Step 4: Activate the theme

   Login to Admin Dashboard.

   Then go to:

   System -> Settings -> Store name -> click edit button

   Reference Image:

   Next:

   Go to Store tab and scroll down a bit and click on Template. You should be able to find your template there. Select to activate it then Save your settings.

   Reference Image:

   Done! Your theme may require additional configuration, and you may find the menu on the left block of the admin dashboard. Here is a sample from my theme.

   Reference Image:

cPanel Based OpenCart

To install OpenCart Theme on cPanel enabled hosting environment, you will need a tool called FTP client. Such tool is FileZilla ftp client, which is available Windows and Linux machines.

Steps is similar to those mentioned above, the only thing different is the upload procedure.

To start off, download the client from this page.

Then do the following.

Procedure

1. Step 1: Extract your Theme file.

2. Step 2: Launch Filezilla.

   Fire it up and fill out the necessary fields:

   • Host
   • Username
   • Password
   • Port - usually 21

   For a quick and simple connection, just hit Quick Connect button to initiate connection. Once connected, navigate to your Theme files using the pane on the right.

   Reference Image:

3. Step 3: Select theme files and upload

   Highlight all the files/folders on the right pane.

   Right click on it then click upload from the context menu. When finished, open a browser and navigate to your OpenCart Admin Dashboard (http://yourdomain.tld/admin).

4. Step 4: Activate your theme

   Follow the same steps mentioned in this section, and that would be it.

Changing a Theme

To change a theme, you simply need to upload all the required theme files. Again, you need to copy/upload all the files and overwrite any files in your OpenCart install directory. Every theme developer has different install instruction, so better read their quick start guideline.

Changing a theme would only require to upload the file and activate it from the Admin Dashboard, as mentioned in this step.

Using The Quick Start Files

Now what is a Quick Start Files?

This is a set of files that came with your Theme. It's supposed to help you quickstart OpenCart by enabling you to install OC along with the Theme and also will install additional configurations, layout settings, category and product data. Hassle free right?

You don't need to install OC first, then setup the Theme after. With the quickstart files, it does both at the same time. Plus, you even get the sample data with this process, you will be able to see your site setup like the Theme's demo.

Take note of this though, the Theme only support the OC version that came with the file. You might wanna check the download section for your theme for the latest OC support. In addition, only use this if you're starting from fresh and not on any instance where live data are being used.

Reference Image:

It's a Wrap!

This is the basic how-to guide on installing an OpenCart theme on localhost. your purchased theme might have special instruction, so make sure you read the manual. If you're stuck on something, feel free to ask it here and I will try to help whenever I could. But in case of issues, you should first contact your theme developer and submit a ticket using their helpdesk ticketing system